ABSTRACT
The Lutheran tendencies of 1529–1538 gave way to Catholic influence during the remainder of Henry VIII.’s reign. The rapid Protestant advance of Edward VI. Thomas Cranmer, assisted by Bishops Goodrich of Ely, Shaxton of Salisbury, Latimer of Worcester, Hilsey of Rochester, and Barlow of S. Davids, maintained the principles of the Reformation against Archbishop Lee of York and Bishops Gardiner of Winchester, Stokesley of London, Sampson of Chichester, Tunstall of Durham, Repps of Norwich, and Aldrich of Carlisle. Opinions among the Bishops were fairly balanced, but in the whole House the Reformers were in a hopeless minority. Henry VIII.’s apologists have cast the whole burden of responsibility upon the Catholic bishops, and clerical historians have retorted it upon Henry VIII. It is idle to exculpate the one or the other, but both put together need not bear all the blame.
